Saturday, May 25, 2013

It’s the 10th inning, it’s a tie game between the White Sox and visiting Marlins. As such, White Sox broadcaster and devoted rooter Hawk Harrelson was in a state of percolating tension and in no mood for the umpiring pratfalls of Angel Hernandez.

So listen as Hawk reacts—“reacts” as in “core reactor meltdown”—to a plainly incorrect call by Hernandez, in which the latter convinces himself that Alex Rios is out at first despite plain visual evidence to the contrary ...

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It's interesting that MLB is showing all these clips of Hernandez and other umpires blowing these calls. In the past there would have been a see no evil hear no evil policy. Are they enjoying this publicity in a weird way?

There's a link to the Mariner's call referenced in #6. Batter called out yet the ball never reached the 1B. Absolutely amazing.

Saw that "highlight" last night, and couldn't believe there wasn't more of uproar. The pitcher clearly caught the ball, intercepting it before it got to the the 1st baseman, and with the pitcher no where near the bag, but the 1st baseman appeared to come off the bag in the act on non-catching the ball, too. Was no one paying attention? Should have been a full Earl Weaver/Billy Martin/Lou Piniella managerial meltdown!

Yeah, that's pretty awful, and one of the sorst judgement calls I've ever seen. But the other call is a difference in kind. The firstbaseman didn't even catch the ball, because another fielder intercepted it. I've seen bad calls, like the Helton one above, where the runner clearly beats the throw, or the firstbaseman is clearly off the base. But I've never seen, nor imagined a call where the runner is out when the firstbaseman doesn't even get the ball. I can see how it would be confusing at first, but did nobody see the pitcher take the ball out of his glove after catching it?

To (attempt to) defend what might truly be indefensible, I'm quite sure I've never, ever seen that happen on a play, the pitcher just reach out and intercept a throw the first baseman is entirely expecting to receive. One sees what one expects to see.

But still, as has been pointed out, the first baseman pulled his foot anyway. And the bag is precisely what the ump is supposed to be focusing on.

Afterward, yeah, but the pitcher's first move after catching the ball is to hold the runner at third.

True, but he never really pulled the ball all the way out of his glove as he did so, and in the replay, you can see the umpire staring not at the pitcher, but intently at the base, just like he's supposed to. You know, so he doesn't miss something obvious like a foot coming off the bag. D'oh.

The umps blew two huge calls in today's SF/COL game as well, both going against the Giants (who managed to win anyway).

One where Belt went five-hole sliding home and CLEARLY hit the plate before Torrealba got the ball down, and then in the bottom of the 9th where Arenado (? maybe LeMahieu) missed tagging Scutaro going into third by about a foot. Both Giants were called out.